What would *your* education policy look like?

So you have heard some of what National, the Greens and Labour say they would do for our tamariki should they be elected, but what would YOU do?

Have the parties hit the nail on the head, or are there important things you think have been missed and need to be addressed?

What 2-4 new policies would you want to see adopted by the next government?

This is what I would like to see:

– More money invested in special needs:

professional development for all teachers and teacher aids, particularly in the areas of dyslexia and the Autistic spectrum. I would want this to be a key part of all teacher trainees’ courses, with research considered as well as case studies.

More access to ORS and other resources for students that will need support to fully achieve their potential.

– Overturn the charter schools legislation:

Focus on all public schools having the same support and same freedoms to innovate in how they meet their students’ needs.

The current charters would be given the opportunity to become schools within the remaining legislative framework.

– Food in Schools programme:

To be rolled out to all Decile 1-4 schools and all others that want to be part of it, no matter what decile.

Food to meet healthy guidelines set down by nutritionists.

To include breakfast and lunch.

National Standards to be scrapped:

The money saved from this should go to quality appropriate professional development in numeracy and literacy for all school staff at all levels.

That’s my 5 cents’ worth. I truly think those measures would have significant positive effect on students’ achievement and love for learning.

I welcome your comments and would love you to share your own policy wishlist here or on the Facebook page.

You’ll never get them to scrap National Standards: too many jobs involved! A good list of priorities and I think that healthy food prority could be an interdepartmental strategy with health and agriculture, couldn’t it?

The opposition will scrap them, though, for sure. They are so fundamentally flawed, and are only there to falsely justify other reforms (as we’ve seen time and time again overseas, where the reforms are further down the road). I love your thought to link the healthy food with other learning areas – excellent – that’s where the best learning comes from, eh?